Latest news – Page 832
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Law Society of Scotland 60th anniversary conference: Susskind fires private equity warning
Private equity firms are stepping up their interest in English legal practices as they search for lucrative investment opportunities in a difficult market, according to Professor Richard Susskind, author of The End of Lawyers? However, the legal services futurologist warned that law firm owners hoping to ...
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LSB consults on regulation of new business structures
The Legal Services Board today stressed its determination to sanction alternative business structures by mid-2011, as it launched a discussion paper on how they will be regulated. The board said it will directly license ABSs if the approved regulators do not seek to become licensing authorities. ...
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Chancery Lane steps in to help run migrant lawyer programmes
The Law Society is to help law firms run internship and secondment programmes that were threatened by new immigration rules by launching a scheme for migrant lawyers under Tier 5 (T5) of the points-based system (PBS). As the overarching body for the scheme, the Society will ...
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Straw drops secret inquest plans
Plans to hold secret inquests without juries have been dropped by the government, justice secretary Jack Straw told parliament today. Straw said in a written statement that the move to introduce non-jury inquests on national security issues did not garner enough support among the parties. Clauses ...
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FSA says it will target City professionals in insider dealing fight
City professionals are a priority target for the Financial Services Authority in its battle against insider dealing, the watchdog said this week. The FSA has begun insider dealing prosecutions against two lawyers who had worked in the London offices of US law firms. According to court papers, Andrew Rimmington, formerly ...
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Bradley review 'revolution' in mental illness treatment of offenders
A report calling for offenders with mental health problems and learning difficulties to be identified and diverted to health rather than criminal justice services may revolutionise the handling of such cases. Lord Bradley’s review of people with mental health problems in the criminal ...
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Top legal aid fee-earners named
The squeeze on legal aid spending has not yet consigned the million-pound-a-year legal aid barrister to history, Ministry of Justice statistics revealed last week. Charles Salmon QC of London’s Hare Court topped the annual league table of the highest-paid criminal legal aid barristers. He received ...
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Law Society to review access to justice
The Law Society has launched a wide-ranging review of access to justice to mark the 60th anniversary of legal aid. Andrew Caplen, chairman of the Society’s access to justice committee, will study the long-term policy options for publicly funded criminal and civil legal services, the Society said this week. ...
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Serious Fraud Office to ask parliament to grant it new powers
The Serious Fraud Office is to ask parliament to enhance its powers to fight fraudulent companies and corrupt directors, the Gazette has learned. The investigation and prosecution agency has begun consulting privately with senior lawyers and officials before it approaches parliament later in the year. Sources close to the discussions ...
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Lord Hunt outlines vision for regulation
The peer tasked by Chancery Lane with reviewing legal regulation says that only ‘minor’ adjustments to the Law Society’s internal governance may be required to yield ‘enormous benefit’ for the regulation of law firms. Lord Hunt of Wirral wants to see a system of regulation emerge ...
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New provider to enter PII market
The single renewal date of 1 October is not the only cause of last year’s problems with professional indemnity insurance (PII) renewals, the chairman of the Law Society’s PII working group stressed this week. Nigel Day, a partner at Manchester firm Hague Lambert, said: ‘It’s ...
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After-the-event insurers seek clarity from Ministry of Justice
After-the-event (ATE) insurers are calling for a seat at negotiations about a new claims process amid fears that the question of when solicitors can take out insurance is back on the table. The Legal Expenses Insurance Group (LEIG), which represents seven insurers, has written to the ...
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International environmental court plan
A new International Court for the Environment, with powers to compensate victims of environmental damage and punish the perpetrators, has been proposed by a coalition of lawyers, politicians, environmentalists and non-governmental organisations. Stephen Hockman QC, who convened a meeting last week to get the project under ...
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Law Society president urged to contact Co-op on probate calls
The Law Society’s president has been asked to take up complaints that customers of the Co-operative’s funeral service business are being offered free probate advice from the firm’s legal services department. Following the Gazette’s report two weeks ago (see Gazette [2009] 23 April, 1), several ...
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MPs condemn LSC for ‘insensitive’ Cardiff cuts
MPs have condemned the Legal Services Commission for failing to consult the authorities in Wales over cuts to its Cardiff office. In a report published last week, the Commons Welsh Affairs Committee said the LSC’s ‘insensitive’ failure to contact either the Wales office or the ...
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New chair for QC panel
Professor Dame Joan Higgins (pictured) has been appointed as the new chairwoman of the Queen’s Counsel selection panel, to replace Lady Elizabeth Butler-Sloss. Higgins, 60, has been a lay member of the selection panel since 2005 and will be the third person to chair it since ...
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Jackson costs review backs CFAs, alternative dispute resolution
Lord Justice Jackson today (8 May) published his much-awaited preliminary report as part of his review of civil litigation costs. Speaking this morning, Master of the Rolls Sir Anthony Clarke, who commissioned the review, said Jackson’s final proposals will be given a ‘fair wind’ by the ...
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A misunderstanding
One of the pitfalls of editorial control over letters is that sometimes the nub is removed so that the printed remnants are misunderstood. That is what happened to my letter that you printed on 17 April. In the version I sent to you I said, in relation to the letter ...
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Room for abuse
I spend a fair proportion of my time dealing with both lasting power of attorney and Court of Protection work, both of which bring me into contact with local GP practices, whose doctors act as certificate providers and assess mental capacity on court form COP3.
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Bad call over helpline criticism
Michael Burdett’s criticisms of CDS Direct and the Defence Solicitor Call Centre (Letters, 23 April) ignore recent positive comments by independent practitioners.